Economy

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its measure of expected sales over the next three months was the strongest since January 2020, immediately before the coronavirus pandemic struck Britain. “The new government’s focus on boosting housing development alongside the recent quarter-point base rate cut does appear to have shifted the mood music in the sales market,” RICS Chief Economist Simon Rubinsohn said.”Inevitably, significant challenges lie ahead in delivering on the ambitions around planning reform and it is far from clear that the Bank of England will follow the August move with further easing over the coming months, but, even so, the policy mix is becoming more supportive for the sector,” he added.The overall picture for the housing market brightened slightly last month as mortgage rates fell ahead of the Aug. 1 BoE cut to borrowing costs from their 16-year high.A measure of new buyer enquiries turned positive for the first time in four months and agreed sales also improved.But RICS’ measure of house price prices in July slipped back to -19 from June’s -17. Economists polled by Reuters had expected an improvement to -10.Other house price data previously released by mortgage lenders Nationwide and Halifax pointed to a pickup in price growth last month. The picture was bleaker in the rental sector where demand from tenants increased while a measure of supply shrank, suggesting further rental price rises ahead.Rubinsohn said the findings reflected what he called “an increasingly hostile environment for investment in the sector”.The previous government’s delayed plans to tighten no-fault eviction rules have been picked up by the new administration, worrying some landlords, while changes to tax and energy efficiency rules have added to their costs in recent years. More

(Reuters) -Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) said on Wednesday it wrote down the value of its TV assets due to the uncertainty of fees from cable and satellite distributors and sports rights renewals, sending its shares down nearly 10% in extended trading.The film and entertainment studio, which owns sports network TNT and streaming service Max, recorded a $9.1 billion non-cash goodwill charge in the second quarter. This charge, stemming from a reassessment of the assets’ value since the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, contributed to a $10 billion net loss for the quarter.The media landscape has significantly changed in the past two years, impacting valuations and expectations for traditional media companies and this current situation is reflected in the write down, CEO David Zaslav said in a call with analysts.Asked whether the company was considering hiving off assets, CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said on the call: “We’ve said before, you shouldn’t be surprised to see us engaging in you know, whatever M&A processes are going on out there.” The shift of viewers from traditional television to streaming services has led to a decline in advertising revenue and affiliate fees, impacting the profitability of Warner Bros. Discovery’s television assets. This decline is further compounded by the escalating costs of acquiring sports rights.TNT failed to renew a broadcast deal with National Basketball Association games, at a time when live sports have become crucial for companies to increase viewership. The company sued the NBA last month.Losing the lawsuit would accelerate the decline of its TV business, analysts said. “The huge impairment charge from Warner Bros Discovery is essentially the final nail in the coffin of the traditional linear TV business,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research.Content revenue in Warner Bros Discovery’s studio segment fell 6%, as the game “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League”, released earlier this year underperformed, compared to last year’s top game “Hogwarts Legacy”. Director George Miller’s much-awaited “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” underperformed at the box office following its release in May. The film raked in $67.5 million at the domestic box office, IMDb’s Box Office Mojo data showed, while it had a reported a budget of $168 million, according to analysts at TD Cowen.The studio’s stock has shed a third of its value this year.NOT ENOUGHStill, the company’s direct-to-consumer customer base grew thanks to its cheaper ad-supported offerings and expansion of the Max streaming service to new markets.Global direct-to-consumer customers at the end of the quarter was 103.3 million, up from 99.6 million subscribers in the January-March period, and beating analysts’ estimates of 101.6 million, according to Visible Alpha data.Revenue from advertisements on its direct-to-consumer platforms nearly doubled to $240 million, trouncing Wall Street expectations, due to higher engagement on the Max streaming platform and strong subscriber growth, the company said.The company’s rival Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) said on Wednesday that its Entertainment unit, including its streaming businesses Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, recorded its first profit in the April-June quarter.”Strong streaming subscriber growth is not enough to make up for weakening fundamentals, the loss of NBA broadcast rights, advertising weakness, and misses across free cash flow, revenue, EBITDA, and earnings,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer of Running Point Capital.Excluding one time items such as the goodwill charge, the company’s loss was 36 cents per share, wider than estimates of 22 cents per share, according to LSEG data.The film raked in $67.5 million at the domestic box office, IMDb’s Box Office Mojo data showed. It had a reported budget of $168 million, according to analysts at TD Cowen.The media giant reported revenue of $9.71 billion in the second quarter on Wednesday, compared to analysts’ estimate of $10.07 billion. More

LONDON (Reuters) – Elon Musk has been accused of exacerbating tensions after a week of far-right rioting in Britain, sparking calls for the government to speed up the rollout of laws policing harmful online content.Misinformation and calls to violence have spread on social media over the past week after far-right and anti-Muslim groups seized on the fatal stabbing of three young girls in the English town of Southport.As rioters clashed with police in some towns and cities, Musk joined the debate on his X platform, posting that civil war was “inevitable” in Britain. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said there was “no justification” for such comments. Separately, Starmer warned social media companies that violent disorder whipped up online was a crime “on your premises”, while adding there was a “balance to be struck” in handling the firms.The official responses reflect the difficult situation the government is in.An Online Safety Bill was passed into law in October but has yet to be implemented. It gives media regulator Ofcom the power to fine social media companies up to 10% of global turnover if they are found in breach of the law, for example by failing to police content inciting violence or terrorism. But Ofcom is still drawing up guidelines outlining how it will implement the law, with enforcement not expected until early next year. In the wake of recent violence, some are calling for the rules to be rolled out sooner. Adam Leon Smith, a fellow at industry body BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, wants Ofcom to start enforcing the Online Safety Act as soon as possible, he told Reuters. “There must be a tipping point where a foreign billionaire platform owner has to take some responsibility for running a toxic bot network that has become one of the main sources of fake news and misinformation in the UK,” he said. Laws properly governing online safety are long overdue, said Kirsty Blackman, an MP for the Scottish National Party.”I would back moves for the timetable to be accelerated,” she said. “Requirements should be brought in as soon as possible, particularly for the biggest and highest-risk platforms.” An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We’re moving quickly to implement the Online Safety Act so we can enforce it as soon as possible. To do this, we are required to consult on codes of practice and guidance, after which the new safety duties on platforms will become enforceable.”Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.ENFORCEMENTWhile those inciting violence online can be prosecuted individually, the government has no way to force social media companies to police their platforms until the Online Safety Bill comes into effect. On Tuesday, Britain’s technology minister Peter Kyle said he had met with TikTok, Meta (NASDAQ:META), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and X to emphasize their responsibility to prevent the spread of harmful content online. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Despite this, a number of posts on X actively encouraging violence and racism – seen by Reuters – remain live and have been viewed tens of thousands of times. At the time of writing, Musk’s X posts on the issue have been read by tens of millions of users, according to the site’s own metrics. One post containing misleading information about a Kurdish teenager convicted of rape in Britain has been seen 53 million times. Another, in which he suggested Muslim communities were receiving undue police protection, had been viewed 54 million times. While such comments themselves might not break the rules around illegal content, allowing direct calls for violence may.”We would encourage Ofcom to speed up its work on the guidelines, so that X and other social media platforms face financial penalties if they do not remove harmful content,” said Iman Atta, director of advocacy group Tell MAMA, which monitors anti-Muslim activity in Britain. “There is a need to force platforms to take more drastic action against extremism and hate speech,” she said. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. Asian assets are in for a rocky ride on Thursday after soothing words from the Bank of Japan’s deputy governor about recent yen volatility were overtaken by a negative turn in U.S. markets, a reminder that market conditions remain challenging. Wednesday’s U.S. session saw the dollar, bond yields and stock market volatility rise and Wall Street fall. Amongst all, that was a weak $42 billion auction of 10-year Treasury bonds. The auction was a big disappointment. Its ‘tail’ – how much higher the yield at sale was relative to where it traded before – was a massive 3 basis points, and demand was 2.32 times the amount of debt on offer, the weakest since December 2022.Also, bear in mind that MSCI’s benchmark Asian and emerging market stock indexes chalked up strong gains on Wednesday of 1.8% and 1.9%, respectively, their best performance in two months. They may struggle to maintain much momentum on Thursday.There is a decent sprinkling of regional event risk in Asia with Philippines GDP, Japanese current account, Taiwan trade numbers and a Reserve Bank of India policy decision all on tap.The BOJ also releases the summary of opinions from its instantly historic July 30-31 policy meeting that some analysts say contributed to the current market turbulence.Investors are still mulling BOJ Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida’s remarks on Wednesday that the central bank won’t raise interest rates when financial markets are unstable, and that recent market turbulence is “clearly a downside risk to the economy.” This helped lift the Nikkei and slammed the yen – in late U.S. trading the currency was down 1.8% against the dollar for its biggest daily fall in 18 months. Implied yen volatility eased a little on Wednesday but remains elevated across the curve. The wild gyrations of the last few days may have passed, but traders are understandably maintaining a cautious and defensive stance. One-week volatility is notably higher than one-month volatility, an indication that investors still expect quite a bit of churn in the yen in the coming days.India’s central bank is widely expected to hold rates steady at 6.50% for a ninth straight meeting, but investors are hoping for a more dovish tone that could open the door for an October rate cut.At this juncture, an October cut seems unlikely. Current money market pricing attaches roughly a one-in-five chance of a cut in October and suggests a quarter-point rate cut is only fully priced by February next year.Taiwan’s July trade figures, meanwhile, will be closely scrutinized for clues on the strength of AI-related demand for microchips. Exports in June soared 23.5% from a year earlier thanks to “strong business opportunities in new technology applications”, the finance ministry said then.Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Thursday:- India interest rate decision- Taiwan trade (July)- BOJ summary of opinions More

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s markets watchdog proposed a traffic light system on Wednesday showing savers how much value for money they get from their pension, with laggards possibly having their assets moved to a better performing plan if a red light flashes. The newly elected Labour government wants plans to perform better for savers, and to build up bigger pots for plugging the cash-strapped country’s investment gap in UK infrastructure and growth companies under the so-called Mansion House Compact.”Poorly performing schemes will be required to improve or ultimately protect savers by transferring them to better schemes,” the Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement.It proposed a ‘value for money’ framework that defined contribution (DC) pensions, the most common form of pension, would have to comply with.”Schemes will be compared on public metrics that demonstrate value – not just costs and charges, but also investment performance, and service quality,” the FCA said.”They would, once the final framework is decided, be publicly rated red, amber or green.”The government plans to legislate for the framework to be extended across the pensions market, as part of a sector review.Finance Minister Rachel Reeves urged pension schemes on Wednesday to continue “backing Britain”, and to consolidate so they can invest more in productive assets.The FCA said that by consulting now on DC pension schemes, which have 16 million savers, it means that future change can be accelerated across the system when the government’s pensions legislation is ready.The Investment Association, which represents asset managers, said the new framework is a “huge opportunity to improve the workplace pensions landscape” by expanding the investment opportunities open to schemes.The FCA said that focusing on value, rather than costs, will allow schemes to invest in assets for greater long-term returns, but have higher management costs, such as infrastructure and venture capital.The proposals also include mandatory end of calendar year disclosure on type and geographical location of assets that schemes invest in, as the government seeks to increase pressure to put more cash in UK-based assets.The rules could restructure the sector.”We expect that greater transparency will prompt some providers to consider if they have the scale and allocations to deliver good value,” said Sarah Pritchard, the FCA’s executive director of markets and international. More

The most recent and costliest of Mr. Trump’s ideas would end income taxes on Social Security benefits.First it was a tax cut for hotel and restaurant workers in Nevada, a swing state where Donald J. Trump proposed exempting tips from taxes. Then, in front of powerful chief executives gathered in Washington, Mr. Trump floated cutting the corporate tax rate, helping to ease concerns in the business community about his candidacy.Now Mr. Trump is calling for an end to taxing Social Security benefits, which could be a boon for retirees, one of the most politically important groups in the United States.Repeatedly during the campaign, Mr. Trump and Republicans have embraced new, sometimes novel tax cuts in an attempt to shore up support with major constituencies. In a series of social-media posts, at political rallies, and without formal policy proposals, Mr. Trump has casually suggested reducing federal revenue by trillions of dollars.While policy experts have taken issue with the ideas, Mr. Trump’s pronouncements have real political appeal, at times putting Democrats on their back foot. Nevada’s two Democratic senators and its powerful culinary union have endorsed ending taxes on tips. The AARP supports tax relief for seniors receiving Social Security benefits, though it has not taken a position on Mr. Trump’s proposal.“You do have to scratch your head a little bit when someone’s going around offering free lunches everywhere,” said Jesse Lee, a Democratic consultant and former Biden White House official. “We’re all for people having their lunch, but we have to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for it.”The most recent and most expensive of Mr. Trump’s plans is ending income taxes on Social Security benefits, which could cost the federal government as much as $1.8 trillion in revenue over a decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. That would burn through the program’s financial reserves more quickly and hasten the moment when the government is no longer able to pay out Social Security benefits in full under current law.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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(Reuters) -U.S. Treasury yields rose on Wednesday after the Treasury Department saw soft demand for a $42 billion sale of 10-year notes and as companies rushed to sell debt as risk appetite improved.Supply is the main focus this week as traders wait on fresh economic data for further clues on the strength of the U.S. economy.Yields tumbled to more than one-year lows after Friday’s employment report for July showed an unexpected increase in the unemployment rate, while jobs gains also came in below economists’ forecasts, raising fears of an imminent recession.Tumbling stock markets partly blamed by traders unwinding popular dollar/yen carry trades, in which they sold the Japanese currency and bought U.S. assets, added to demand for safe haven U.S. debt.This demand has since ebbed as stocks move higher, but Treasury yields remain well below where they have recently traded, which was seen as denting interest in Wednesday’s debt auction.The 10-year notes sold at a high yield of 3.96%, 3 basis points above where they traded before the sale. Demand was 2.32 times the amount of debt on offer, the weakest since December 2022.”Investors just weren’t willing to pay up for sub-4% 10s,” said Vail Hartman, U.S. rates strategist at BMO Capital Markets in New York. “This suggests this move may still have a little bit further to run before dip buyers reemerge in a more meaningful way.”Heavy corporate debt issuance also pushed yields higher.“You have a lot of issuers who paused on Monday and even maybe held back yesterday just to make sure the coast was clear in terms of how risk assets are going to be received and now are coming to market today,” said Michael Lorizio, senior fixed income trader at Manulife Investment Management in Boston.Yields on interest rate-sensitive two-year notes were last up 1.8 basis points on the day at 4.0034%, after going as low as 3.654% on Monday, the lowest since April 2023.Benchmark 10-year note yields rose 8 basis points to 3.968%, after reaching 3.667% on Monday, the lowest since June 2023.The yield curve between two- and 10-year Treasury notes steepened 4 basis points to minus 4 basis points. It reached 1.50 basis points on Monday, the first time it has turned positive since July 2022.Traders expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 50 basis points at its next policy meeting on Sept. 17-18 as the economy slows, but they are also pricing in a 31% chance of a smaller 25 basis point rate reduction, according to the CME Group’s (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch Tool.The odds of an emergency rate cut before the September meeting have fallen as risk markets recover.The next major U.S. economic release will be consumer price inflation for July on Aug. 14. Comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the Fed’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on Aug. 22-24 may also provide new clues on the path of rate cuts.Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East could also increase demand for U.S. Treasuries. More